Tips on couchsurfing during the South Africa World Cup
Word is they’re short on traditional accommodation options for the South Africa World Cup. I wrote a piece today for the Guardian about alternative options, including using sites such as iStopover, Couchsurfing and home exchanging.
While researching, I logged onto the South Africa group on Couchsurfing.com to get the current lowdown. Predictably, there are a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon and local hosts are likely to get bombarded with ill-thought-out requests. Some have already had a fair few.
One Cser said:
That’s too bad to hear because those of us who have been on CS for a while and hosted people, that might be looking for a couch in SA for the World Cup will probably not be able to find one.
Shame indeed. But I’m sure local hosts can weed out the freeloaders from those who have truly tapped into the couchsurfing spirit.
Couchsurfing (and other alternative accommodation networks) are ideal for this sort of event and although I’m keen to spread the world, out of respect for the local hosts I’d urge newcomers to read profiles carefully before sending a request. Individual couchsurfers can, to a certain extent, make their own rules about who they choose to accept and when. Make sure you are compatible before you waste their time and yours. That’s not to say that newbies shouldn’t get involved, but do think before you dive in. Check out the Couchsurfing’s World Cup group here. Even if you can’t get a host, there’s bound to be lots of good meet-ups going on.
Posted to » Local travel, Travel tips, couchsurfing
